Despite warnings from healthcare officials, governors, mayors, Dr. Fauci, President Trump, Andrew Cuomo and every other authority figure, Americans still felt the attraction of hitting the road this year.
Damn the pandemic, full speed ahead!
According to Don Redman with the American Automobile Association, there were about 34-million fewer travelers than in the heady Christmas holiday of 2019.
But overall that number accounts for a 24-percent drop in car travel.
“The large number of those traveling were preferring the automobile over the plane,” says Redman.
Yes, it’s almost ¼, but compared to comparable numbers for air travel, train, bus and cruise, 24-percent is not bad at all.
“For those who preferred traveling by automobile, we’re talking nationwide, about 81-million people were travelling by car for this holiday,” Redman explains. “When we look at our region, which includes Louisiana, we’re talking about almost nine-million people traveling by car.”
Redman says national air travel numbers counted about three million people: “A decrease of almost 60-percent versus this time last year,” and Redman continues. “And other forms of transportation, being rail and cruise, a decrease of nearly 88-percent.”
Redman says travel numbers will start to rise as soon the COVID-19 vaccination number starts to dent the infection rates and the pandemic finally starts to subside: “As the vaccine starts getting around and confidence picks up it could be a brighter year for 2021. But it’s still kind of early to tell what direction we’ll be going in.”